Potato cakes - yum

Back in September I harvested a good quantity of potatoes. I was careful to store some for using in December for roasties. Having some left at Christmas, I stored them in a dark place  and hoped they'd be usable in January after my holiday travels.

Left: the last of my potatoes - in a bad state! 

Would you eat rooted potatoes? 

They were quite firm, but rooting. I decided to 'waste not' and use them. So I made mashed potatoes; then added egg, onion, salt/pepper, spices and cooked salmon and made a dozen salmon cakes (pictured below). Lightly fried, they tasted great!

Variety: I grew Pentland Javelin and Maris Peer potatoes, putting them in the ground around St Patrick's Day, and digging the bulk of them up in September.

Food photography isn't my forte but they tasted good and are relatively healthy! 

Bon Appétit!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Bird Watch 2013

Above: my resident robin.

For the past two years I’ve participated in the annual bird watch promoted by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). This year the event takes place in the UK on the 26-27 January 2013. Many bloggers have taken superb photos of the birds that visit their garden and I’ll be trying to do this once again. 

Bird watch is one of the world's largest wildlife survey events and the RSPB have a bird identification chart and counting sheet available from their website (link located above).

The Great Backyard Bird Count takes place in the USA  on 15-18 February and information is available from http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/  (I’m not sure when other regions hold their events.)

Good luck taking photos if you’re taking part – I find photographing birds very challenging but so much fun too!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Planning for 2013

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year - here's hoping 2013 is a fantastic year for you and a really productive growing year!

I've been thinking about what I'd like to improve on and achieve in the garden this year. Initial thoughts include:

• less slugs and snails in the garden (if that's possible);
• continue to grow organically;
• more vegetables especially carrots as I really enjoyed their flavour this year;
• succeed at growing something new e.g. kohlrabi, asparagus;
• more colour in the garden using perennials and annuals.
• and a more tidy and productive garden (than the year before).

Well quite a bit on my wish list and lots of work cut out for me this year. I don't generally start working in the garden until March so January and February are months for planning, reading, and doing small jobs outside when the whether is good.

Hope you're getting on well with any plans for 2013 and will be sharing them on your blog! I learn a great deal from reading other garden blogs so thanks everyone for sharing your photos, tips, stories and dilemmas, etc. Hope 2013 is a really good year... for us all!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.